Monthly Archives: September 2015

“If ever there was a biblical chapter that prosperity theology teachers should avoid, this is it! The heroines and heroes of faith hardly ‘named it and claimed it…'” – from the study notes on Hebrews 11, The Gospel Transformation Bible

The prosperity gospel tells us that God always wants us wealthy and healthy, and that when these conditions are not present, the depleted state is evidence of our own lack of faith. It is a pernicious lie, and responsible for deep pain and misunderstanding among many of God’s precious saints. And you understand why – how do you suppose someone feels who is sick or poor and yet has tried to “exercise faith” to make these conditions go away? Answer: lousy…like a loser Christian who has come up short in the godliness department. Indeed, I know the story of a woman who died from a disease “believing God” for a miracle, and then I heard of a saint who afterward said that the death needn’t have happened – the woman had just needed more faith.

But if “God doesn’t want you sick”, and “sickness is always from Satan”, then what hope do I have to pray for healing? Apparently God stands powerless to help, except, I guess, if I speak “words of faith” or “animate His power by MY belief”???? Prepare two fingers and open mouth. So you see, illness may not always come from Satan, but the prosperity gospel always does.

The truth is that God is ultimately sovereign, and in His sovereignty and goodness, sometimes He decrees suffering. Romans 8 contains a section explaining just that, and the purpose is always to conform us to the image of Christ (Romans 8:28).

After all, what, pray tell, do the health and wealth-ers do with this…

They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated–of whom the world was not worthy– wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, Hebrews 11:37-39 (ESV)

Heck of a life for a “child of the King”, right? It surely must surprise many that a child of the King was sawn in two. And yet royalty is a good description, for we read that of them, the world was not worthy. And as to wealth, a great theologian once said, “money ain’t everything,” and it seems that Moses agreed, for he obeyed God’s calling, eschewing riches for a greater reward:

He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. Hebrews 11:26 (ESV)

So you see, there is a reward to look forward to. It is beyond this life, though; God calls us to live for the Kingdom…which is to come.

Don’t you think so? The writer, Mr. Anonymous, is not exactly skimming the surface. After all, there’s the question of “Sabbath rest” and Moses and angels. There are high priests and losing your salvation (or not losing your salvation!) and solid food.

And don’t get me started about Melchizedek.

But what is Hebrews really about…really?

When you get right down to it, isn’t it about the Gospel? I mentioned in a previous post that the theme of this letter is, “Jesus is better.” And in the end, that means He is a better way of salvation. And long about chapter 10, this starts to become really clear…

the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near… Hebrews 10:1 (ESV)

For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins… Hebrews 10:4 (ESV)

But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins… Hebrews 10:12 (ESV)

Here’s what I’m driving at – there are those who say that the gospel is only for beginners in the Christian life. That’s what I always used to think. You get the gospel, that Christ died for your sins, and salvation is by grace alone through faith, and then you move on to the deeper stuff, the important stuff, you know, the discipleship type stuff. Grace would therefore only be for entry into the Christian life…doing would be for disciples.

But if Hebrews is really one of the most challenging books in the New Testament, and if Hebrews is really all about the Gospel, then maybe it doesn’t get any deeper than the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Maybe the Gospel of Grace is the ultimate discipleship curriculum.

And as someone has said, maybe the Gospel is not the ABC’s of the Christian life, but the A to Z’s. Maybe the Gospel is really what life is all about.

Consider, as a last thought, Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones on the Apostle Paul:

“Here is a man writing at the full height of his maturity as a Christian, the great apostle to the Gentiles. At the very height of his experience he says, ‘God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.’ He has not left it to go on to some higher reaches. The cross is still everything to him. Why? Because, he has found that everything proceeds from the cross. It is the source and the fount of everything that he has as a Christian, everything that he has become, everything that he can ever hope for.”

Well thank you, NASA, but actually I wasn’t worried in the first place; and if anyone else cares, I haven’t taken the time to do any real study about this whole blood moon phenomenon. You can write me letters – or comment below (that’s probably easier).

I did however, appreciate this brief article: Blood Moons and Biblical Discernment, and if you are interested in more information, I think you can skip the Guardian article and turn to this for a brief summation. The upshot is this – Christ is coming again – but we don’t know when, and a “tetrad” of full moons is not going to make one whit of a difference. Even the pastor John Hagee, who wrote a book on the phenomenon I didn’t read, apparently agreed (which may lead one to wonder why he wrote the book in the first place, but again, I can’t tell you, and that’s what the comments are for).

Here is what we absolutely do need to know: Christ is coming again, and we do well to yearn for this return, as the writer of Hebrews says…

Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. Hebrews 9:28 (ESV)

Who is it that will be saved? Well, those who have believed in his name, and one of the evidences of this is that you are eagerly waiting for Him. And why not eagerly wait for Him? Some may tremble in fear at the Lord Jesus’s return, but we who have trusted in Him know that His return will bring not judgment, but rescue and salvation…the beginnings of an eternity of joy.

When you become a Christian, the strangest thing happens: you begin to like things you didn’t like before and do things you didn’t want to do before. The end result is remarkably predictable: you end up paying close attention to an ancient book, talking often to other people about “religion”, and singing loud in church.

And in your wildest dreams, you would have never imagined.

Now, you can call this a miracle – and that’s true, it is – but you might also call it the New Covenant:

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. Hebrews 8:10, 11 (ESV)

How can you explain this, when out of the blue, suddenly someone longs to serve Christ and study His word and tell the world about Him. But when you think about it, how else could this whole thing work, but that God would actually change our desires, or as Jonathan Edwards called them, our affections? You see, we like new stuff because…we are new. We like things we’ve never liked before…because we’re not the people we used to be.

My favorite verse on this is found in the Old Testament prophet of Jeremiah:

I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me. Jeremiah 32:40 (NIV)

Inspired to fear Him! Glorious!

So…has it happened to you? Have you come to know a God who has done so much good to you that you are positively inspired to love and serve Him? Mind you, you’re not perfect in your obedience…but you’re definitely inspired. And would you say that by the power of His grace, the LAST thing you want to do in all the world…is turn away from Him?

If so, then give glory to God, because unless I miss my guess, you too are a partaker of the New Covenant.

Like this:

How many Christians have been kept from prayer by this intimidating word in the Psalms?…

If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. Psalm 66:18 (ESV)

Answer: a lot. I’ll bet many Christians have been kept from prayer because of their understanding of this warning, but consider this insight from Tim Keller in his message on Hebrews 7:

“It says, for example, in Psalm 66, ‘If I cherish iniquity in my heart, he will not hear me.’ Good night! Then why should he hear anybody? We’re all cherishing iniquity in our hearts, so that’s the end of that.”

The enemy of our souls takes Psalm 66 and twisting it, fools us into believing we need a perfect conscience – yes, even a guiltless life – in order to pray.

And our prayer life dies.

But what if when I came to pray, God wasn’t looking at what I was cherishing in my heart, but at what Jesus was cherishing in His heart? That is, what if He really represented me as my advocate before the Father, and what if He did this, not just on judgment day, but on every day, at every moment? Wouldn’t that be glorious?

Well, it’s true:

Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. Hebrews 7:25 (ESV)

Do you long to draw near to God? Here’s good news: Jesus is your advocate before the Father, and He is always interceding for you. And this is powerful – just knowing that the Father is listening because Jesus is interceding for you – well, it almost makes you want to stop cherishing sin in your heart, doesn’t it?

So let me close by paraphrasing the immortal words of Pete Townshend of The Who…

One of the great arguments for the idea that a true Christian can stop being a Christian or lose their salvation (a.k.a. classic Arminianism – “I chose Christ, so I can reject Him too”) is found in Hebrews chapter 6, where we read…

For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. Hebrews 6:4-6 (ESV)

At first glance, that sure sounds like a Christian who has gone to the dark side. But consider, to be “enlightened” only means to have been taught. And to have “shared in the Holy Spirit” can simply refer to someone who experienced the Spirit’s convicting work.

But ultimately, we know that the people described never were Christians because of what the author says in the verses immediately following…

For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. Hebrews 6:7, 8 (ESV)

It’s all about the fruit, at least that’s what Jesus said (Matthew 7:15 – 17), and that’s what the author is saying here too. The people in question were clearly fruitless, not “produc(ing) a crop useful” and “bear(ing) thorns and thistles”. Therefore, they were “worthless and near to being cursed and…burned”. But according to Jesus, true Christians always bear fruit. Of course, it is never the bearing of fruit that makes us Christians, but when someone has truly come to know Christ, he or she always bears fruit.

The people of verses 4 through 6 clearly did not meet the biblical mark of salvation, as the recipients of the letter did, which we see in the next verse:

Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things– things that belong to salvation. Hebrews 6:7-9 (ESV)

And on top of all this, of course, there is that wonderful truth in John 10, where Jesus said,

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. John 10:28-29 (ESV)

When Jesus gives eternal life to someone, that person “will never perish” and no one can ever “snatch them out” of His, or the Father’s hand. That’s ultimately comforting, for though I am surely called to “hold fast my confession” (Hebrews 4:14; 10:23), my ultimate hope is in the One Who is holding on to me.

Have you ever been guilty of prayerless praying? I don’t know about you, but sometimes I find myself “praying” through a prayer list, and yet hardly paying attention to what I am saying. I’m sure it doesn’t honor the Lord, and I have a strong sense that I am wasting my time. And then I read this verse, and my suspicions are confirmed by the opposite example of the Lord Jesus:

In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Hebrews 5:7 (ESV)

The context seems to be Jesus praying as our ultimate High Priest from the cross, and He is calling out with “loud cries and tears.” So I find it encouraging that when Jesus prayed, He PRAYED. He meant for His prayers to be heard by His Father, and He prayed as if He meant it. As pastor and author, Dr. Joel Beeke puts it, “in His praying…He prayed.”

Beeke said, “Our greatest problem is not that we don’t pray. It is that we seldom pray in our prayers. Truly, prayerfully, pray. Private, prayerful, praying – that’s what we need…There is nothing so essential, and so neglected as private, prayerful, praying.”

Beeke first heard the phrase “prayerful praying from his father”, and there is apparently a textual variant in James 5:17 which says that Elijah “prayed in his praying.”

Isaiah seemed to understand this issue when he wrote:

There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities. (Isa 64:7 ESV)

This is what we are called to do – to rouse ourselves to take hold of God. And I need to do it, oh how I need to do it. I can be so lethargic in my praying, but I need to wake myself up and remind myself that there is a all-loving, Almighty God hearing my words, and He wants me to pray as if He is listening.

It is the way that God the Son prayed, and as a result, God the Father answered, and He will answer us as well.

If you’ve got some time, click on this link and listen to Joel Beeke tell all about the problem and solution to prayerless praying: